Mazer Rackham
Mazer Rackham'' ''was an admiral in the International Fleet"Mazer in Prison" and an honorary member of the Mobile Operations Police,''Earth Awakens'' as well as the mentor to Ender Wiggin.''Ender's Game'' He was first introduced in ''Ender's Game''. History Early Life As a young child, Mazer grew up with his mother who taught him about Maori culture. When she died, Mazer's father took Mazer back to England and did not allow Mazer to embrace his Maori heritage. The First Invasion Earth Unaware During around 100 BX, Mazer was a soldier in the NZSAS - the New Zealand Special Air Service. He was screened by Wit O'Toole for the Mobile Operations Police along with four other members of the NZSAS. During the first test, Mazer and the other 4 were to escort Wit safely to a rendezvous point, while under fire from other MOP soldiers. At the beginning of the journey to the location, Mazer gave his weapon to Wit because he knew Wit would be more effective with the weapon. Mazer and the other four all passed the first test.''Earth Unaware'' Mazer was the first of the NZSAS to participate in the second test, where he was tortured by Wit. After an hour, Wit switched off the torture device and informed Mazer that he had failed the test - that he should have attempted to escape the facility. Earth Afire Since Mazer was scouted for the MOPs, he was assigned to test the experimental HERC for the NZSAS to use in combat. His team included Fatani, Patu, and Reinhardt. For most of the tests the team planned the conditions that they would encounter, but in one test the team was sent by Colonel Napatu with 36 hours of no sleep to retrieve a Copperhead tank. Upon retrieving the tank with the HERC, the team discovered that the tank was not a fake and had two live passengers, Burnzel and Captain Shenzu. The training mission was not a test for the tank, but a display of the HERC for the Chinese. After the test, Mazer and his team were ordered to leave within the day to help train the Chinese to use the HERCs.''Earth Afire'' After receiving news of his departure, Mazer went to tell Kim Arnsbrach that he was ordered to leave for China. During his talk with Kim, he broke up with her because he did not want to marry her and be an absent husband and father. Before leaving the room, Kim gave Mazer a version of the med-assist, so he could hear her voice. Mazer left a little while after to prepare to leave for China. On the way to China, Mazer and his men flew with several HERCs to deliver the them to the Chinese safely. Mazer also learned during the trip that his team would be trained to use self-propelled drill sledges during their stay in China. After their arrival, Mazer and his team were greeted by Captain Shenzu, who displayed the drill sledges to the NZSAS team while explaining how the sledges worked. Shenzu allowed Mazer to be the first of the NZSAS team to ride in a drill sledge. The driver during Mazer's ride was Lieutenant Wong. When the alien Formics arrived in Earth's orbit, Mazer attempted contacting Colonel Napatu in order to receive a live feed of what was going on. Mazer was unable to talk with Napatu, as he was in a meeting, but Sergeant Major Manaware talked with Mazer instead. Manaware informed Mazer that he should ask Captain Shenzu for a connection to the feeds, as Manaware had to keep every possible line open to talk with others. Mazer then went to speak with his team, who had already tried bypassing the Chinese jamming system, which kept the team from accessing the news feeds. Mazer and his team felt it necessary to obtain intel about the current state of the Formic scout ship, and they stole a Chinese HERC after Captain Shenzu denied Mazer access to the feeds a second time. Shenzu and his men discovered that Mazer had stolen a HERC and sent them a warning, but Mazer and his team did not respond and continued to fly outside the range of the Chinese jamming systems. The next morning, Mazer and his team witnessed the scout ship release several landers, each a kilometer across, one of which was headed for near their location. Mazer messaged Shenzu stating that his team would aide in the rescue efforts with the Chinese HERC, but Shenzu requested that they come back to base, so Mazer contacted Napatu, who ordered his team to return back as well. However, Napatu did not make the time frame of his order specific, so Mazer's team assumed Napatu was giving the team permission to help. Heading towards the impact zone of one of the landers, Mazer and the team discovered that two of the landers landed in sparsely populated areas, however the team continued to rush for help. Mazer ordered Fatani to connect the HERC to all news feeds, and to try and hack into the Chinese systems. Mazer next contacted Shenzu, who was still furious that Rackham stole the HERC. Mazer continued to disobey Shenzu, even though Shenzu was now threatening to shoot the HERC down. Mazer continued on with the mission after giving each team member the choice to leave, due to a likely chance of a court martial after the invasion. The team then helped move injured people out of the vicinity of one of the landers. One of the many people Mazer helped was Bingwen, who was stuck under a tree branch near the edge of a lander with his grandfather, Ye Ye Danwen. At this point the world had seen the feeds that Mazer's team had been recording of the incident, and they were horrified. Shenzu then contacted Mazer, congratulating him on his good work and telling him to take the victims to a nearby barn as a temporary hospital. Flying back towards the lander, Mazer noticed that the Chinese had arrived with reinforcements; however, many of the humans were shot down by the Formics before the Formics released their skimmers and troop carriers. When the alien aircraft were released, several Chinese fighters began to fire upon the transports, but the Formics quickly retaliated. Mazer then ordered Reinhardt to land the HERC near a fallen Formic troop carrier. Mazer, Fatani, and Patu investigated to find one living Formic, which then began spraying the surrounding area with a defoliant. Mazer shot the Formic, and he quickly stopped investigating the scene after obtaining a piece of metal from the Formic troop carrier. Reinhardt then flew the HERC to a nearby road where Mazer, Fatani, and Patu took off their poisoned clothing. After cleansing themselves of any possible poisoning from the defoliant, Mazer ordered Reinhardt to begin finding villagers to relocate to the barn. The team carried approximately ten villagers to the barn, where Mazer put the helpful villager Ping in control of operations. Before leaving, a man insisted that he and his family should leave even though Mazer believed the farm was the safest location. Despite noticing that the man's wife did not want to leave, Mazer allowed the family to walk away. As Mazer was leaving the barn to find more villagers to relocate, Bingwen asked what he should do as a contingency plan in case Mazer did not return, but Mazer simply told Bingwen to wait. While looking for villagers, Mazer and the team noticed a second wave of Formic skimmers and troop carriers leave the lander. Despite Reinhardt's quick flying, the Formics decimated the HERC with speed. After the HERC crashed, Mazer retrieved the rifle from Patu's dead body to shoot down a skimmer that was still shooting the downed HERC, and he then used the med kit to slightly heal himself. Bingwen found Mazer lying unconcious beside the HERC and made a travois to take Mazer back to the barn to help him. At the barn, the midwife Mingzhu began to perform intestinal surgery. Partway through, Kim was contacted through the med-assist to ask for medical assistance. Kim obtained the help of Dr. Itzak Mendelsohn to perform a shadow surgery on Mazer. Mazer woke up four days after his surgery and was greeted by Bingwen and his grandfather. The grandfather explained to Mazer that Mingzhu and the other villagers in the barn decided to leave and head north to a safer location, but Bingwen wanted to stay and ensure Mazer's safety. Mazer then fell back asleep to find Danwen guarding the door with a sword. Danwen then explained how Bingwen and him had been collecting resources since Mingzhu and the villagers left along with the current situation in the war. Mazer rested several more days with Bingwen and Danwen before they decided it was time to leave the barn. Unfortunately that night Mazer and Bingwen had to make a quick escape when the Formics appeared and killed Danwen with the defoliant. Mazer and Bingwen headed north and during their travels they fell short on food and water. At one point they discovered a group of people eating a Formic, who threatened Mazer and Bingwen. Eventually Mazer and Bingwen found a family who was willing to allow Bingwen to travel with them, so Mazer provided Bingwen with his contact information and made arrangements with the family before heading south towards the Formic landers. On his way south Mazer was running low on water and found a Chinese pilot, who Mazer scavenged for his supplies. After gathering the pilot's supplies Mazer heard someone screaming for him, which turned out to be Bingwen who left the family after they were ambushed by Formics. Bingwen then convinced Mazer to allow him to travel with Mazer on his quest to destroy the Formic lander. While scouting the Formic lander, Mazer and Bingwen noticed that the Formics went through tunnels to get past the shield, indicating that the shield did not go underground, but they were ambushed by a Formic troop carrier. Mazer quickly picked up Bingwen and slid down the hill to try and escape the Formics, but he was nearly caught by the Formics when Wit O'Toole and Calinga rescued Mazer from the aliens. After Mazer recovered, he realized that the Chinese drill sledges would be able to attack the Formic lander from underneath and asked if Wit's vehicles could travel to the Chinese base. Mazer guided Wit and the MOPs to the Chinese base, where they found a functional HERC and the three self-propelled drill sledges. Mazer then quickly trained Wit and Calinga in how to use the devices before planning the attack. They used the HERC to transport the drill sledges close to the Formic lander in order to drill beneath it. Before leaving to go to his drill sledge, Mazer told Bingwen to obey the MOPs while he was gone. Mazer, Wit, and Calinga then went to the drill sledge, burrowing underground for 300 meters and cooling off in his cool suit before heading straight up towards the Formic lander. Mazer, Wit, and Calinga were not able to penetrate the Formic lander directly, due to a giant air pocket beneath it. Mazer and Wit then formulated a plan to allow Calinga to get his sledge through the bottom by melting a hole into the Formic lander with the hot ejecta from the drill sledges. While Wit was preparing the drill sledges for the attempt, Mazer fended off the drills from Formics, which appeared in full force just as Wit was finishing. Mazer and Wit were successful in melting the bottom of the lander, allowing Calinga to make his way in with the tactical nuke. Calinga sacrificed himself by detonating the nuke due to the Formics overwhelming his possible escape. When Mazer and Wit arrived back on the surface, Mazer was greeted by Captain Shenzu, who proceeded to arrest Mazer for illegally trespassing into China, stealing government property, and detonating a nuke. Earth Awakens After several days of being held in custody outside of Lianzhou, Captain Shenzu came to pick up Mazer and then Wit from their tents to take the to see General Sima. Sima proceeded to condemn Mazer and Wit for taking actions into their own hands and not allowing China to handle the situation themselves. During the conversation, Sima revealed that the MOPs team had been pinning the success of the destruction of the Formic lander on Sima, who was reluctant to take credit for the attack since it was a lie. Mazer and Wit along with Shenzu, who stepped into the conversation, convinced Sima to corroborate the story to help boost the world's morale. Mazer and Wit then agreed to work under Sima's command, so Sima gave them a mission to escort bioengineers to the Dragon's Den. The next morning, Mazer and Wit met with Captain Shenzu and Lieutenant Hunyan after the dozers cleaning the path to the Dragon's Den for the bioengineer convoy were destroyed by the Formics. Hunyan provided Mazer, Wit, and Shenzu with a HERC and other neccesary resources for a mission to save the surving dozer driver after the first attempt using an armored transport. While traveling towards the dozers, Mazer stopped the HERC at the remains of the armored transport where they found the driver eviscerated with his intestines mostly pulled out of his body. After theorizing on the purpose of eviscerating the driver, the team went back to rescuing the dozer driver. When they rescued the dozer driver, they provided him with medical assistance and asked him to drive the new dozer if he was capable. Mazer then flew the HERC as they guided the dozer towards the Dragon's Den. While escorting the dozer, Lieutenant Hunyan warned Mazer, Wit, and Shenzu of an incoming wave of reinforcements from the Formic scout ship. Mazer flew the HERC up to gather information on the incoming reinforcements. He discovered one of the troop carriers was heading close to the Dragon's Den and decided to destroy it. To destroy the troop carrier, Mazer grabbed it in mid air with the talons of the HERC, and several Formics attacked him as Wit cut a hole through the ship. It was destroyed with grenades after the HERC dropped it. Mazer began to release chutes to slow down the descent of the HERC after it was damaged in the attack. Mazer safely landed the HERC in the rice fields. While Shenzu went radio in for information, Wit applied first aid to Mazer, and Mazer looked to see if the HERC was reparable, but the avionics were shot and several other systems were irreparable as well. When Shenzu returned, they learned the convoy and Lianzhou were attacked by Formics. Due to the bioengineers being killed in the attack, Wit and Mazer decided they should contact the bioengineer Dr. Gadhavi, who lived in India. Shenzu disapproved since Dr. Gadhavi was the resident of a foreign nation, but he agreed to help. Shenzu led them to Shoagun Air Base. At the air base, Mazer found an undamaged biosuit to protect him from the defoliant since his last one was damaged. They uncovered a Goshawk C14, which Mazer familiarized himself with while Wit and Shenzu looked for supplies in the base. After finding supplies, Wit and Mazer formulated a plan to attack a Formic transport to obtain a goo gun. When tracking one of the transports to attack, the team discovered a goo refilling station. Wit and Shenzu trapped the refilling station with electrodes, and the next morning the team successfully killed several Formics in the trap. Once Mazer, Wit and Shenzu had a reasonable sample of the Formic defoliant, they flew to India, where the military threatened to shoot them out of the sky before escorting them to a safehouse. When Dr. Gadhavi developed a counteragent, Wit, Mazer, and Shenzu were driven to a government facility where Wit introduced them to Khudabadi Ketkar. Ketkar discussed their plan for introducing the counteragent to the world. Ketkar then took them too see Dr. Gadhavi, who showed them a working counteragent and explained the potential for quickly mass producing the different elements of the counteragent. The next day, Ketkar held a press conference, and he, Dr. Gadhavi, and Shenzu all spoke at the conference. Mazer, Wit, and Shenzu then went to the Dragon's Den, where they helped command a counteroffensive called Operation Duck Sauce. While at the Dragon's Den, Mazer took a quick break one day to greet Bingwen when he arrived on the premises before going back to restricted areas. A few days later, Mazer was meeting with Shenzu when Colonel Chua interrupted. Chua had brought Bingwen with him, as Bingwen had tricked him into believing that one of the Anglo soldiers were leaving the restricted area. Realizing what Bingwen had done, Mazer told Chua that he would punish Bingwen and the girl, Pipo, who was with him. Mazer then took Bingwen to a mess hall where they discussed Imala Bootstamp and Victor Delgado's proposal to attack the Formic scout ship. Realizing the potential of the proposal, Mazer called Wit to come talk about the possible mission as well. Mazer and Wit agreed that in order to turn the tide of the war they needed to attack the Formic ship. While waiting on Imala and Victor to enter a group call, Mazer talked with Bingwen, who told him to call Kim back. Their conversation ended when Lem Jukes entered the call, introducing Victor and Imala to all the MOPs. Lem Jukes then explained the potential mission for infiltrating the Formic ship, which included staying in a cocoon-shaped ship for several days that was disguised with junk. After the call, the MOPs debated the safety of the mission. Mazer thought the idea was good as Juke Limited was a spacefaring company that knew how to build ships and had the resources to do the mission Lem Jukes proposed. Mazer ate dinner afterwards with Bingwen and informed Bingwen that he had told Shenzu about Bingwen's accomplishments. Mazer then informed Bingwen that Shenzu had arranged for Bingwen to be taken to a military school up north. Bingwen agreed on the condition that Pipo and Niro be provided a safe home up north. Bingwen also asked Mazer if he could come with him, but that request was not possible. The next morning, Mazer went to say goodbye to Bingwen, but Bingwen forgot to talk to Mazer as he left. Mazer went with the MOPs to Luna, where he had to sign liability forms in order to join the mission to attack the Formic ship. They then went to the ''Valas'', where Victor finally debriefed the MOPs about the mission. During the debriefing Mazer noted that the goal was to kill all the Formics by using their plasma against them. Victor then trained Mazer and the MOPs in how to operate in zero gravity. After training was over, Mazer was selected to join the team to infiltrate the Formic ship. Mazer was the last one to arrive to the Formic ship, and he discovered that everyone else had already covered all the gun turrets by the time he got their. Mazer then headed inside the ship to the bay. In the bay Mazer helped Caruso keep a look out for Formics. Mazer spotted the first few formics coming out of shaft 13 and had Victor shock them. Several minutes later Formics started swarming the bay. Wit then ordered Mazer and Cocktail to clear a path to their exit shaft, so they could leave once the nozzels were all turned. Mazer and Cocktail used a discarded wall plate as a shield to clear the path. While clearing the path Mazer heard reports that ZZ and Bolshakov were dead. Seconds later Cocktail was killed by a Formic. The Second Invasion The Swarm Three years after the end of the First Formic War, Mazer was the captain of a breach team in WAMRED, the International Fleet's Weapons and Materials Research Division. Mazer often test piloted disguised capsules, intended to be used to fly near a Formic ship and infiltrate it. In one instance, after finding the pattern in his capsule's spin, he was hailed on the radio by both Shambhani and Rimas, the other members of his breach team. After performing the manuever and landing on a derelict ship used for testing, he set up the Gravity Disruptor and leaped upwards away from the ship using a technique of his Nan-Ooze boots. He and Kaufman, another member of his team, took out the rest of the simulation Formics and ended the exercise.''The Swarm'' On their flight back to L4, Mazer and his team discussed what they could have done better in their simulation battle and new ideas for technologies for their use in war including a shield based off of Nan-Ooze nanomachines. Once back in his barracks, Mazer browsed the IF's forum for new posts, and later uploaded an idea for a nanoshield that he and his team had devised. After checking the forum again, Mazer was surprised to see a large influx of news posts. In a vid, Ukko Jukes announced that one of the eight Parallax telescopes, Copernicus, was destroyed by a Formic fighter ahead of the main alien fleet. Mazer discussed the news with the rest of his breach team. The Invasion Begins When the Second Invasion had begun, Mazer piloted a poorly-armed supply ship in the rear echelons of the human fleet's formation. As he flew through the swarms of Formic ships, he noticed that they centered around a single craft. Going against orders, he fired a missile at it, destroying it and unknowingly killing a Hive Queen. This ended the invasion with a human victory. Mazer in Prison Following the war, Mazer was placed in one of the International Fleet's courier ships and sent into the stars where his only exercise consisted of electrical stimuli to his muscles. He traveled at nearly the speed of light to keep him young enough to command the human fleet in the future. The ship was programmed to return after a preset amount of time and distance. He would have aged only five years, though decades passed on Earth; upon his return to his home planet, he would be expected to command the human invasion fleet, currently heading to the homeworlds of the Formics. Though his victories in the war had become the Fleet's greatest propaganda tool, and his legend had been perpetuated through the vids that everyone saw, Mazer's time in space was lonely. He had made the decision to take this short trip alone. He utilized the ansible for communication with the International Fleet headquarters. Through this method, he communicated with the then-lieutenant Hyrum Graff, informing him on the newly-organized Battle School. Graff had been assigned as the head of recruitment for the school, and was to look for a candidate who had the same traits as Mazer. Graff had located Mazer's family on Earth and used them to convince Mazer to help him. Mazer was angered that his family, to whom he was considered dead, was used in such a fashion. He was sent bandwidth-costly visual messages via the ansible of his daughter and the rest of his family. Along with the visual, he received letters from his family. However, through the letters he learned that his ex-wife, Kim Arnsbrach, had remarried. The Computer Voice that provided his only companionship in this stage of his journey reported back to the Fleet of Mazer's emotional responses to the letters from his family. It also reported that he had reprogrammed the ship and computer to allow him complete navigational control. The Fleet had grown concerned over these reports and sent shrinks to evaluate him via ansible. Mazer had decided that he would not be coming back to Earth. Mazer instructed the Fleet to give Hyrum Graff sufficient authority to truly find and train a successor to him as commander of the human forces against the Formics. Then, and only then, would Mazer return to Earth, promising to help train his successor a few years earlier than the original plan. The Fleet had no option but to agree, and promoted Graff. Mazer fulfilled his part of the bargain, returning to Earth to train the new commander. The Third Invasion Mazer met his protégé at Command School on Eros. The boy, Ender Wiggin, had been sent to this highest of military schools at a very young age, and Mazer was assigned to teach him to defeat the Formics. .]] In 0 BX, one year after Ender's arrival at Eros, Mazer entered Ender's room and waited for him to wake up; when he did, Mazer sat silently until Ender moved near him, grabbing his leg and knocking him down. This made Ender more cautious of Mazer, but the old man did not speak until the end of the day, when Mazer lashed out in fluid movement and immobilized Ender within two seconds. Mazer informed Ender that he would be his teacher and mentor from then on, and that he would be programming the simulator that Ender would train with. Mazer pushed Ender past his limits, but Ender rose above the pressure. In his "final exam" at Command School, Ender fired the Molecular Disruption Device at the Formic Homeworld, unknowingly committing xenocide but securing a victory for humanity. Mazer revealed to Ender that the exams and simulations had all been real battles, devastating Ender and making him pass out for five days. After the Xenocide After the Third Invasion was won and the League War resolved, a court-martial was held for Hyrum Graff, in which Mazer testified for the Battle School officer. Mazer and Ender had several conversations about the Formics, Graff, and Ender's role in the deaths of Bonito de Madrid and the boy named Stilson. Mazer would never directly confirm any of Ender's theories, but his lack of denial was always enough for Ender to know he was right.''Ender in Exile'' Mazer was chosen to be the pilot of the first colony ship in the new Dispersal Project, colonizing the former Formic worlds. Ender was also placed in this project as the new governor of a planet later named Shakespeare. It was all a lie, however. Mazer never left the Sol System again. He continued to work with Hyrum Graff in the Ministry of Colonization. Though he was not seen for years during the wars on Earth after Ender's victory, Mazer resurfaced to offer Han Tzu and Julian "Bean" Delphiki II passage into space. Han Tzu refused, while Bean agreed.''Shadow of the Giant'' He accompanied Bean's wife, Petra Arkanian, to Portugal where she retrieved a girl named Bella, who had been born by a surrogate mother carrying an embryo that belonged to Bean and Petra. As Peter Wiggin rebuilt the Hegemony into the Free People of Earth, Graff and Mazer offered Ender's colleagues the opportunity to leave Earth and govern a planet. It was their fear that the Battle School graduates would be used in the worldwide conflict, manipulated by whatever political power rose to prominence, and he wanted to prevent that. Every member who received the offer said no, as they were already too involved in matters on Earth to leave. As Mazer and Peter spoke together, they agreed the time was right for the International Fleet to give Bean a personal starship, the ''Herodotus''.''Shadows in Flight'' They'd promised to take him and his genetically altered children into space to await a cure for their mutation. Mazer had located all but one of Bean's children, and under the direction of Peter, delivered them to Bean and Petra. Mazer also facilitated the divorce between Bean and Petra. He knew much of Petra's heartache at saying good-bye to her husband and children, as he'd experienced a similar period of sadness when he left Earth after stopping the Formics nearly a century earlier. Petra doubted his compassion, but Mazer reiterated his love for her, Bean, and all the other Battle School graduates. Many years later, once the Free People of Earth embodied every government in the world save for the United States, Mazer died. Legacy Mazer's life and death were immortalized in a series of books on the history of the Formic Wars, written by Valentine Wiggin. In these books, Mazer was credited as the military hero he was, but his love for his family and the Battle Schoolers was also an important point. Humanity thought of Mazer as a hero long before Ender defeated the Formics, and they remembered him as such long after world peace was established. Trivia * Mazer's exile to the stars mirrors Bean's similar journey, as they both divorced their wives and set out on a linear path with no end point. * Mazer was one of the few characters introduced in the Ender's Game short story that carried over into the novelized version."Ender's Game" * He is portrayed by Ben Kingsley in the Ender's Game Film.''Ender's Game'' (Film) * Mazer had an O+ blood type. Quotes References Site Navigation Category:EnderVerse Category:Characters Category:Characters introduced in Ender's Game Category:International Fleet